Wednesday, April 8, 2009

CONCERT OF COLORS WILL RETURN...BUT IN A SHORTER VERSION

The Concerts of Colors will return to the MaxM. Fisher MusicCenter this summer, but in a shorter version, two days versus four.

That’s the news we got Wednesday from Anan Ameri, director of the Arab American National Museum, one of the key groups that puts on the show along with New Detroit, ACCESS, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and, in recent years, the Chrysler Foundation. Last year was the 16th* for the festival.

Ameri wrote in an e-mail, responding to questions from Metro Times: “Since Chrysler has been the main sponsor of Concert of Colors and they are not in a position to support it this year, we will have to scale back to two days. We, as well as Chrysler, know the value of this program and we will do everything we can to restore it to four days in the following years.”

Ameri also said that the Global Thursday series, which has now ended its run for the season, will return in September, “However, depending on the funding we might be required to cut the number or frequency of performances.“

“It is sad news but these are difficult financial times for all cultural institutions. We are doing our best to insure that these vibrant programs continue,” Ameri concluded. —W. Kim Heron

Update: After the original item was posted, we received word that the dates for this year's concert are July 18th and 19th, again at the Max. At least some of the headliners are to be announced next week.

* Corrects an earlier version of the posting with the incorrect ordinal. And while we're on the subject of summer festivals, we might note that the Detroit Festival of the Arts, held in June in recent years, is also off for this year. Officials of Midtown's University Cultural Center Association cited construction of the Midtown Loop Greenway, which will make a large portion of the festival unusable this year. That decision was reported on the Music Blahg last September. But some version of the festival, held in June in recent years, is to return in 2010. Meanwhile, Cityfest (the former Tastefest) and the Detroit International Jazz Festival are slated to return July 1-5 and Sept. 4-7, respectively.